[172] “The initiation into the Mysteries,” he says, “scenically represented the mythic descent into Hades and the return from thence to the light of day; by which was meant the entrance into the Ark and the subsequent liberation from its dark enclosure.  Such Mysteries were established in almost every part of the pagan world; and those of Ceres were substantially the same as the Orgies of Adonis, Osiris, Hu, Mithras, and the Cabiri.  They all equally related to the allegorical disappearance, or death, or descent of the great father at their commencement, and to his invention, or revival, or return from Hades, at their conclusion.”—­Origin of Pagan Idolatry, vol. iv. b. iv. ch. v. p. 384—­But this Arkite theory, as it is called, has not met with the general approbation of subsequent writers.

[173] Mount Calvary is a small hill or eminence, situated in a westerly direction from that Mount Moriah on which the temple of Solomon was built.  It was originally a hillock of notable eminence, but has, in modern times, been greatly reduced by the excavations made in it for the construction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  Buckingham, in his Palestine, p. 283, says, “The present rock, called Calvary, and enclosed within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, bears marks, in every part that is naked, of its having been a round nodule of rock standing above the common level of the surface.”

[174] Dr. Beard, in the art.  “Golgotha,” in Kitto’s Encyc. of Bib.  Lit., reasons in a similar method as to the place of the crucifixion, and supposing that the soldiers, from the fear of a popular tumult, would hurry Jesus to the most convenient spot for execution, says, “Then the road to Joppa or Damascus would be most convenient, and no spot in the vicinity would probably be so suitable as the slight rounded elevation which bore the name of Calvary.”

[175] Some have supposed that it was so called because it was the place of public execution. Gulgoleth in Hebrew, or gogultho in Syriac, means a skull.

[176] Quoted in Oliver, Landmarks, vol. i. p. 587, note.

[177] Oliver’s idea (Landmarks, ii. 149) that cassia has, since the year 1730, been corrupted into acacia, is contrary to all etymological experience.  Words are corrupted, not by lengthening, but by abbreviating them.  The uneducated and the careless are always prone to cut off a syllable, not to add a new one.

[178] And yet I have been surprised by seeing, once or twice, the word “Cassia” adopted as the name of a lodge.  “Cinnamon” or “sandal wood” would have been as appropriate, for any masonic meaning or symbolism.

[179] Eclog. ii. 49.

    “Pallentes violas et summa papavera carpens,
     Narcissum et florem jungit bene olentis anethi: 
     Tum casia, atque aliis intexens suavibus herbis,
     Mollia luteola pingit vaccinia, caltha.”

[180] Exod. xxx. 24, Ezek. xxvii. 9, and Ps. xlv. 8.